


Answering Questions That Have Not Yet Been Asked

by Adorable Anarchist (Vampbi)



Series: The Key To Time [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), Primeval
Genre: (North and Simon aren't together but they both date Markus), (yay polyamory), Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Alternate Universes, Apocalypse, Background Relationships, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) Whump, Dinosaurs, Distant Past, Distant future, Future, Hank Anderson Whump, Hank and Connor both live and things end happy for them tho, I can promise that much, I gave them names tho, I'm writing this as I go y'all, M/M, Minor Gavin Reed/Rk900, Minor Markus/North (Detroit: Become Human), Minor Markus/Simon (Detroit: Become Human), Minor North/Markus/Simon, Minor blue-haired Traci/her girlfriend, No Apocalypse, Past Hank Anderson/Original Female Character, Post-Apocalypse, Primeval AU, Tags May Change, Time Travel, Warnings May Change, Whump, Yeah you read that right, aight most of these tags apply to the series as a whole tbh, animal endangerment, attempt at slow burn, dinosaur endangerment?, lmao obvs, oh yeah, probably, this is just like....the set up, too tbh, you don't need to know anything about Primeval to read this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-12 10:32:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15993392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampbi/pseuds/Adorable%20Anarchist
Summary: Five years ago Cole Anderson died, four years ago Amelia Anderson went missing, today time is breaking and Hank suspects his supposedly dead wife is not only alive but also knows something about it.Connor just wants to get back to a future which may no longer exist.And the dinosaurs are more afraid of you than you are of them.(No need to know anything about Primeval to read and enjoy this. I changed a lot of shit up anyway)





	1. Orbs and Androids

**Author's Note:**

> WELCOME! To whatever the fuck this is! I did not mean to write this AU but here I am.
> 
> As I said before, there's no need to have seen Primeval or to have previously known about it's existence to read this. BUT! If anyone remembers that weird lil show I'm down to talk about it always! Primeval was my childhood/tween years but I honestly don't think I realized how fucking weird it was until I started writing this?
> 
> A couple of things to note: 1: The Temples, Lester, Becker and the gang don't show up in this fic. In this universe they either don't exist or are off living normal lives. 2: This plot does _not_ directly parallel the plot of the show nor does any one character 100% fill the role of a Primeval character. I'm mainly saying this to reassure y'all that Hank and Connor live happily ever after in this universe XP
> 
> I'm felixvanhusss and r-k800-obocop on tumblr if you wanna hang out or talk about HankCon or w/e <3
> 
> Fic title from All Sparks by Editors
> 
> Sadly unbeta'd

Hank had not expected this. In fact, if you’d asked him all the possible ways his life could go this wouldn’t have even been something he thought of as a joke, that’s how much he hadn’t expected this.

What was ‘this’? ‘This’ was chasing his supposedly dead wife through a forrest while something he didn’t _want_ to call a dinosaur chased them. Running next to him were two identical men, one human, one a robot from the future or maybe an alternate universe? Hank wasn’t entirely sure on that one anymore. Reed was also somewhere in the forrest but Hank didn’t know where at that moment.

How’d this happen? Well, it started a week earlier. Or it started five years ago, it depended what you counted as the beginning.

~One Week Ago~

Hank flung himself into cab after a late night at Jimmy’s Bar getting as drunk as possible. He’d slowly been getting better at coping with existence in this post-Cole, post-Amelia world but some days were harder than others. On this particular day he’d had to investigate a child homicide case and while he didn’t always fall apart at these things anymore the kid had looked just a little bit to much like Cole and it was a little to close to anniversary of Amelia disappearing. The combination was just a little to much for him.

Five years ago his son had died, four years ago his wife disappeared and was declared dead. Hank over the course of a single year went from having a family to being totally alone in world, who wouldn’t want to spend their time forgetting that? He’d almost killed himself from the pain of it all in the first three years but then he’d allowed Fowler to bully him into therapy. Hank was still not sold on the idea of remaining alive but he wasn’t actively trying to die anymore so that was something at least.

On that night Hank was quietly reconsidering this decision in the back of the cab as it drove him home. He knew he wasn’t going to actually do anything with these thoughts but he thought them nonetheless.

The cab stopping suddenly, flinging Hank forward in a way that caused him to gracefully vomit on the cab floor, snapped him out his thoughts.

Hank looked through the window of the self-driving cab to see what it was that had appeared in front of the vehicle. It took a minute for his brain to process what he was seeing and even then he didn’t believe it. In fact, what he was seeing was so obviously not a thing that could exist that Hank became convinced he was dying. He hadn’t heard of alcohol poisoning causing hallucinations but he wasn’t an expert.

In front of the cab was what _looked_ like a slightly larger than person-sized floating orb of glowing broken glass. Hopping in and out of this orb were little lizards with tall colourful spines. They were hop-gliding back and forth, their spines swaying as they moved. They were chirping at each other as well and it was unlike anything Hank had ever heard before. Maybe they were an odd sort of lizard from somewhere tropical? But of that were the case then why were they here? And why the orb?

As if in a trance, Hank pressed on the cab’s horn to try and get them to move out of the way. This did alarm the little lizards who all fled into the orb. Apparently the cab still registered something in front of him and all Hank could see was the orb so at least he knew there _was_ something in front of him. Quietly he input directions to a nearby hospital into the cab and it backed away from the orb and drove away.

About halfway to the hospital Hank changed his mind and reinput directions to his house. When the cab reached where the orb was before it was no longer there and Hank almost changed his mind a third time but he shrugged it off and allowed himself to continue home.

Sumo was already sleeping when he arrived, Hank quickly checked the dogs food and water before stumbling his way to the bedroom and collapsing.

~

It took until halfway through the- frankly torturous what with the hangover- workday for Hank to recall the orb and the lizards. He instantly pushed the thought to the back of his mind. He’d drank to much and…hallucinated or something, which was concerning but he was ~~mostly~~ fine so dwelling would be useless.

Hank turned his attention to Reed and Nines antics. The two of them were always a good distraction. Gavin Reed and Richard ‘Nines’ Bishop were partners and frienemies. Reed tried his damnedest to get under Nines’ skin and Nines delighted in setting Reed off by being above it all. There were various bets around the precinct on when the two would hook up or if they had already. Hank didn’t participate in that but he found it amusing.

Today Reed was snapping rubber-bands at Nines who was doing an amazing job of pretending nothing was happening.

The momentary distraction helped him push all thought of orbs from his mind and continue working on his pile of paperwork.

~

While the next day passed in relative peace it was the day after that forced Hank to confront the fact that something was going on. He was walking Sumo in a nearby park, trying to enjoy the peace and quiet of the afternoon. It was warm but not hot and there was a slight breeze, his favourite kind of weather and he couldn’t enjoy it because the back of his traitorous mind kept jumping back to glass and orbs and lizards.

Then an odd movement in the trees drew his attention. Someone was watching him from the midst of the trees. Perhaps a paranoid conclusion to jump to but he was certain of it. Without drawing attention to the fact that he’d noticed them Hank attempted to get a better idea of what the person lurking in the shadows looked like and _that_ drew him up short.

Looking out of the trees at him was Amelia. This was a ludicrous thought to have but Hank was sure of it. Watching him from the trees was his missing wife.

Not even a second after he’d realized this she turned and darted into the trees. Hank started to run after her, unsure of what his goal actually was here. Sumo ran with him, excited about whatever was happening.

The line of trees wasn’t all that thick so it was a surprise when Hank lost track of Amelia so quickly. He turned his head, scanning the area for a sign of where she’s gone when he saw it. Inside a cluster of trees there was another fucking orb.

Tightening his grip on Sumo’s leash, Hank began walking towards it. Confusion and possible hallucinations aside, Hank was first and foremost a detective and he wanted some _answers_ goddamnit!

“Lia!” Hank called, not really expecting an answer.

He didn’t get one. Not fully convinced he wasn’t hallucinating he approached the orb. Sumo began to whine, so once again Hank had confirmation that _something_ was there.

Then the orb rippled and out fell….

“Nines?” Hank asked, bewildered and fully convinced he’d lost it.

The man picked himself up off the ground and brushed some of the dirt off his clothes, which were _weird._ He turned towards Hank and finally he could get a proper look at him. The man looked almost exactly like Nines but he was….Smaller somehow. Not as far as height was concerned, Hank was sure the guy stood at around 6’ just like Nines. No, more like his shoulders were narrower. His hair was a wild mess and he was covered in scorch marks. Then there were his clothes, burnt and torn up as they were Hank could still tell that whatever shiny, almost holographic material they were made of wasn’t something he’d seen before.

“I’m sorry?” The man asked, yet another hint he wasn’t Nines, the man’s voice was far gentler than Hank’s sort-of-work-friend’s.

“Sorry, you look a lot like someone I know.” Understatement, “I, uh, what’s going on?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know. I was pursuing a suspect and she dived into a…” The man then helplessly gestures to the orb, “That. I followed her and now I’m here. I can’t detect her or my team and I appear to no longer be in a warehouse. Whatever this thing is it’s…Interfering with my processing and memory though, I do not recall actually making contact with it and my memory only goes as far back as…You apologizing and remarking that I appear similar to someone you know.”

Hank blinked. This was odd to say the least. The man shook his head and looked at Hank once more.

“I’m sorry, where am I? There appears to be a gap in my memory. I was just pursuing a suspect and I….Do not appear to be in a warehouse anymore.” The man said, his blinking becoming rapid and almost panicked despite his calm tone of voice.

Hank was beginning to think the guy had a head injury. Ignoring the orb for now Hank walked over to the man and placed a gentle hand on his arm and lead him a few feet away from the orb and sat him down. A second later the orb flickered and disappeared. Almost instantly the confusion in the man’s eyes disappeared.

“Whatever that was it’s no longer messing with my systems, it seems.” The man stood up once again, Hank wanted to protest this but he remained quiet.

Probably in shock. Or he’d lost it.

“I’m Connor. I’m and RK800 unit assigned to the DPD investigating anti-android crime. I apologize for not introducing myself properly earlier. My network connection appears to be down, may I ask your name?”

So Hank had finally gone insane.

“I’m Hank. Wha- Androids? I finally crack and I hallucinate a pretty Terminator. Figures.” Hank muttered the last bit but it doesn’t escape Connor’s notice.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand what it is about my statement that has caused you to believe you’ve ‘cracked’.” He used finger-quotes on the last word like an _adorable_ and pretty Terminator.

“Well, I’m seeing weird floating orb things and weird lizards and now a _fucking android_ have been jumping in and out of these orbs, for one thing! And not to mention five minutes ago I could’ve sworn I saw my missing and presumed _dead_ wife running around! So yeah, I’m fairly certain I’ve cracked, because none of those things are on the list of what’s possible last I fucking checked!!” Hank realized he was breathing to fast but he’d seemingly lost all control of his body and he found himself collapsing to sit on the ground with his head in his hands.

Sumo whined and nudged at Hank’s shoulder but Hank couldn’t do anything but breath far to fast trying to process whatever the fuck was going on.

“Not…Possible? Androids are commonplace, are we not?” Hank glanced up to see Connor looking just as worried and bordering on panic as he was.

“No. Not even slightly. CyberLife keeps bragging about how they’re _oh so close_ to creating a robot that can pass the Turing Test but they haven’t pulled it off. So no, androids are not commonplace.”

Hearing this Connor sunk to the ground next to Hank.

“What year is it?” He asked in such a small voice.

From this distance Hank could see his eyes were brown, yet another different between him and Nines.

“2027.”

“Fuck.”

~

It takes a while but Hank and Connor manage to gather themselves together, mostly at Sumo’s urging, but once they managed to pick themselves up Hank suggested Connor come home with him so they could figure this out somewhere other than a public park. Connor quickly agreed and once awkwardly silent walk and a change of clothes for Connor later they found themselves sitting at Hank’s table, both sort of just staring off into nothing. Connor looked small in Hank’s old Police Academy hoodie and an old pair of jeans that Hank hadn’t gotten around to throwing out yet.

Connor was the one to break the silence.

“Rifts in time have been posed as a scientific possibility for a while now.”

“Yeah, but as a fringe thing. No one has any evidence that they exist!” Hank countered, Connor look quite exasperated at that.

“I think these past couple hours have been proof enough. At least it has been for me.” Connor said then frowned then looked down at his hands where he was fiddling with a coin that according to the date stamped on it hadn’t been made yet, “Am I….Stuck here? There are things I require to keep myself functional….Will I die here?”

“Well, what sort of things? Maybe we can MacGyver something up?” Hank asked.

He didn’t really know the…robot…with Nines’ face but he knew he didn’t want the guy to _die._

“Thirium, for one. And a charging station, which I would normally be able to download instructions on how to assemble but…That’s not possible. The android network simply doesn’t exist yet.” Connor looked more and more dejected with every word and it was seriously tugging on Hank’s poor heartstrings.

“We’ll figure something out.” He tried to sound confident but wasn’t sure he was successful.

Connor smiled, barely there but still a smile, anyway.

“I have another question…” Hank started, trying to distract Connor from whatever sad path his thoughts had taken him down.

“Yes, Hank?”

“How come you look so much like Richard Bishop? He’s a coworker of mine and you could be his twin.”

Connor frowned, “I…Don’t know. Random chance perhaps? Androids are often modelled after humans, not specific humans, not on purpose, but it is possible whoever designed me had seen this Richard Bishop somewhere and subconsciously modelled me after him. Or maybe it means something. Either seems equally likely at this point.” Connor finished with a shrug and began flicking the coin between his hands.

Hank nodded, deciding it would be wiser to accept this as the answer for now, what with the time-rifts or whatever they were popping up. Gotta have priorities.

After another pause which felt longer than it likely was Hank spoke up again, “So, what now?”

Connor just shot him a look which seemed to say something along the lines of ‘how the fuck would I know’. Hank had to chuckle a little at that. There was some comfort in not being the only one totally lost on how to proceed.

“How about…Today we just hang out and process all this and tomorrow we head back out to that park and….Fuck I don’t know! Look for the orb again? Do they even pop up in the same place twice?” Hank said.

“I have no idea, Hank. You have more experience with these rifts than I do. I’ve only encountered the one and I can’t even remember that properly.” Connor was beginning to look truly frustrated.

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask, why is that?” Hank leaned forward.

“I’m not certain but it’s likely the rift had some sort of magnetic field. A stronger magnetic field than anything I was designed to resist, which means it’s quite strong. Or maybe it’s something else but the magnetic field seems most likely from the parts of my memory I can access.”

“Alright, one mystery solved. Any other ideas while you’re on a roll or should we save any further breakthroughs for later?” Hank asked, trying to make Connor’s frown even just a little smaller.

It worked, Connor smiled slightly, “That’s all I can’t think of at the moment. How do you suggest we spend our time as we ‘process’ whatever is going on?”

“I don’t fucking know. What do you normally do for fun?” Hank realized this was perhaps an odd question to ask an android but to be fair he had no idea what the social etiquette was for this situation.

Luckily Connor had an answer, “I have several aquariums and spend much of my free time on their upkeep and monitoring them.” Then Connor frowns again, “I don’t know what will happen to my fish while I’m here.”

“I mean, if these rifts really are in time maybe by time you get back no time will have passed for your fish.” Hank rushed to try and reassure him.

“I suppose.” Connor said but he continued to frown.

Hank searched for a topic change, something to get the guy’s mind off the uncertain fate of his fish. Being an expert at distraction from horrible truths this didn’t take very long.

“You ever seen Star Trek?”

~

Connor had not ever seen Star Trek. Several episodes into the Original Series he was clearly hooked and Hank got to enjoy introducing someone to Star Trek. Minds firmly off the orbs or rifts or whatever Hank found that Connor’s company was oddly enjoyable. He briefly pondered if Next Gen would’ve been a better choice, what with Data, but he’d concluded that he didn’t know enough about androids to know if that would be fun or offensive. As it turned out the Original Series was a very wise choice. Connor took a liking to McCoy which Hank could respect.

Connor would also make periodic comments on what was happening which was amusing as fuck.

“Why would he remove his glove? Clearly this place is contaminated in some way and you’d think being a space exploration crew they’d express more caution.”

“Redshirts do dumb shit. It part of Star Trek lore at this point.”

“They are engineering and tactical, correct? Shouldn’t they be….Smarter than that?”

“Shut up and enjoy the show, Connor.”

They watched Star Trek until it was late enough that Hank kept drifting off only to snap himself back awake. After doing this several times Connor paused the show and gave him a very pointed look.

“Humans require sleep, last I checked.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Hank sighed and pushed himself to his feet, then thought of something, “Do you…Sleep?”

“Not exactly. I go into stasis sometimes if I have software updates or repairs to make. Or if I need to process a lot of information. I can do this sitting or standing though.” Connor replied.

“So you’re good on the couch then?” Hank asked, he’d be more interested if he wasn’t falling asleep on his feet.

“Yes, Hank.” Connor said, smiling again, “Now, go to sleep.”

Hank nodded and stumbled off to his room. It took maybe a second from when his head hit the pillow to when he fell asleep.

He dreamed of broken glass, space and sad, brown eyes.

~

The next morning was not less confusing than the day before. Hank had all but forgotten about the android as well as the previous days events until he was about halfway through brushing his teeth. He spent a few seconds completely zoned out, trying to deal with this info. This was his life now? Rifts in time and an android from the _fucking future?_ How does one even deal with that?

The sticky notes on his mirror didn’t answer his silent questions.

After that realization he moved through his morning routine slower, as thought the shattering of reality was physically weighing him down. Or maybe he was just putting off seeing Connor and facing the fact that yesterday was real. Maybe both. Hank might be in shock.

Eventually he did make it out to the kitchen for his morning coffee. It was quiet apart from the noise of Sumo padding over to his food dish expectantly. It was….Normal. That set Hank on edge. Had he hallucinated yesterday? Had he finally lost it? He scooped some food into Sumo’s bowl and watched as the dog began to eat, mind elsewhere.

“Good morning, Hank.”

Hank startled, snapping his head around to see Connor standing in the entry to the kitchen. He hadn’t even heard him approach. Were androids unnaturally quiet walkers or was Hank just that distracted? So many questions.

“Jesus fuck! You scared me!” Hank said, probably harsher than he’d meant to.

“My apologies. When are we returning to the park?”

“Can’t wait to get outta here, huh?” Hank asked, half joking, half sorry for the poor guy.

“More or less,” Connor attempted to smile, “While your company is enjoyable…Being trapped in the past isn’t.”

Hank nodded, “Yeah, makes sense. I’m going to call in sick to work then we’ll head out. Sooner we get you back to the future the sooner we can both try and forget about those fucking orbs.”

Connor smiled, much more real this time. Despite only knowing him for less that a day, Hank was gonna miss Connor. Though, getting the android back to where he belongs would be good. Hank had no idea what they’d do if Connor really was stuck here.

~

Unfortunately life was rarely that easy.

“What do you mean it’s not gonna open again?” Hank said, trying very hard not to shout.

“ _As far as I can tell,_ it’s not going to open again. I can’t pick up any of the magnetic trace it left behind or anything,” Connor sighed, running a hand through his hair, the saddest look Hank had ever seen on his face. “This was a long shot anyway.”

“Well, what now?” Hank asked.

“I have no idea.”

They stood looking at the space where a day ago Connor had appeared, both completely lost. Hank didn’t know how long they’d stood there before an idea occurred to him.

“We can’t be the only people to have seen these things, right?”

Connor looked at him, eyebrows raised. Hank took that as his cue to continue.

“We could search around online and see if anyone knows more than we do. It’s another long shot but it’s something.”

“There is internet in this year?” Connor asked, face lighting up.

“Uh, yes? There’s been internet for a long time now. Aren’t you a supercomputer, how did you not know that?” Hank asked, his turn to be surprised by something the other had said.

“The year the internet was invented isn’t something I store in my memory banks, Hank. I was designed to connect to android specific networks but with some settings adjustments I should be able to connect to your internet.” Connor looked over the moon at this news.

“I should’ve maybe mentioned that we’re not in the fucking stone ages earlier, huh?”

Connor shrugged, “I could’ve asked. I was just…”

“In shock?”

“Something like that.”

They smiled at each other for a second. Hank felt something twist in his chest in that second and while he knew what it was he steadfastly ignored it. Catching feelings for someone who’d be leaving would be pointless. Not to mention Hank still wasn’t sure if androids felt those sort of emotions. Clearly they felt _something,_ he thought, remembering Connor’s breakdown the previous day, but he had no idea what the range of robo-feelings was.

“Should we return to your house? I don’t really see a point in standing next to these trees for much longer.” Connor asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Yeah, might as well. Hey, will you need my WiFi password?”

Connor just laughed.

~

Hank and Connor sat at the table once more. This time though, Hank was scrolling through various sites and article on his laptop, finding annoyingly little on the topic of time rifts. Real time rifts, at least. Connor was sitting opposite him, doing the same in his head. Probably moving a lot quicker through information than Hank was. They’d passed more time than Hank was wanted to think about like this, occasionally trading comments, quips, or ideas about where to search next. Finally, Connor frowned, sitting up straighter.

“You find anything?” Hank asked.

“Yes and no.” Connor answered, more cryptic than Hank would like but also more encouraging than anything else that day.

“What do you mean?”

“I potentially found some official documentation on something similar to the rifts we’ve dealt with but…I will have to do some hacking into the governments files to learn more,” Connor’s frown deepened, eyes now meeting Hank’s, “As carful as I am there’s a 23% chance this could be traced back to you.”

“You’re asking if I’m okay with you hacking classified files?” Hank asked, just wanting to confirm.

“Basically, yes. There’s a high chance this is nothing.” Connor said.

Fuck it, hack the government.” Hank shrugged, leaning back.

No risk, no reward, after all. Connor nodded and seemingly wasted no time. His eyes stared off into the middle distance, unseeing, and his LED spun fast between yellow and red. Hank leaned back and simply watched his unmoving form.

It took a full hour, Hank had grabbed a small snack while he waited, but finally Connor blinked.

“I’m going to send these files to your laptop. I think we found something.” Connor smiled.

A half-second later a window popped up on his screen. It contained several files and Hank clicked on the first one.

~ ~ ~

` Cases of documented Anomaly sightings and encounters related to Anomalies - File 3`

` February, 10, 2007 - Gorgonopsid located. Anomaly was not located. Gorgonopsid was contained. `

` May, 5, 2008 - Anomaly located. No creature sightings `

` October, 12, 2010 - False alarm. `

` June, 28, 2011 - Coelurosauravus briefly located. Anomaly was located. Coelurosauravus whereabouts unknown. `

`September, 13, 2013 - Unknown arachnid from Carboniferous Period. Anomaly was located. Arachnid was contained. `

~ ~ ~

The list went on and on for pages. Hank clicked through a couple for files of the same until finally he found something other than these sightings.

~ ~ ~

` Anomaly Research Centre: Proposal - April, 20, 2026`

`In the past three years the number of documented Anomaly sightings had begun to increase. What once was something we could easily handle without distracting from other projects has become a problem and we are having trouble keeping the existence of Anomalies from public knowledge. We suggest forming a sort of task force to handle everything to do with these Anomalies. The ARC (Anomaly Research Centre) would have several focuses. They would keep the existence of Anomalies from the public, they would contain and deal with Anomalies, and they would research the Anomalies. If we can learn what is causing this it is possible we could put a stop to it.  `

~ ~ ~

It went on to discuss particulars of setting up this Anomaly Research Centre, even listing potential recruits and containment options for creature they can’t return to their own times. At the end it’s marked as approved. So the ARC exists then, no question about it. Hank turned his head to look at Connor who, it turns out, was already looking at Hank expectantly.

“I take it you’ve already read through these?” Hank asked.

Connor nodded. Hank ran a hand through his hair.

“Well, we certainly found something alright. Question is, now what? Do we try and seek out the ARC? Or, what?”

“I’m unsure,” Connor sighed, “I’m also unsure how we’d even do that. There isn’t a location in any of these files and it seems they show up at Anomaly sights somewhat sporadicly. They don’t seem very organized which makes them even harder to track down. I can run the names of the proposed recruits through a few databases and see what I can turn up at least?”

“They don’t mention the names of who they ended up hiring anywhere?” Hank asked, knowing the answer.

“No. Likely this has to do with the secretive nature of this organization.”

“Alright. Well, searching the names we do have is better than doing nothing I guess. How long’ll that take ya?”

Connor shrugged, “I’m unsure. I’ll run it as a secondary task and alert you whenever it is I’m done.”

It was as good an answer as any so Hank nodded. He didn’t know if he needed to get really drunk or stay sober while he processed everything they’d been learning lately. He settled on distracting himself by introducing Connor to Terminator while they waited.

~

Halfway through the second movie Connor told him his search was complete. He spent a second organizing his new information then sent it to Hank’s laptop.

~ ~ ~

` Potential ARC agents. Narrowed down to exclude those highly unlikely to have been recruited based on current activity.`

` Kelsy Jones - Age: 24, Occupation: Zoology Student and Podcast Host, Speciality: Behavioural Ecology `

` Andy Garcia - Age: 23, Occupation: Biology Student and Podcast Host, Speciality: Evolutionary Biology `

` Daniel Phillips - Age: 36, Occupation: Nanny, Speciality: Coordination `

` Josh Sawyers - Age: 32, Occupation: Professor, Speciality: Prehistory `

` North Jones - Age: 27, Occupation: Lab Tech, Speciality: Security `

` Simon Scott - Age: 27, Occupation: Bookstore Employee, Speciality: PR `

`Markus Manfred - Age: 26, Occupation: Forrest Ranger, Speciality: Animal Tracker  `

~ ~ ~

There were a handful of others but these were the one’s Connor had highlighted as almost certainly being a part of the ARC. Tracking one of them down wouldn’t be easy though, most of them had disappeared from their listed occupations and their current addresses were unknown. However, Connor had attached a file of random facts about each person on the highlighted list and a quick scan through it gave Hank an idea. Markus was still periodically spotted around his father’s house, Andy was a regular at a particular Starbucks, both Kelsy and Andy were often seen at a nearby park, not the one with the Anomaly, and Simon was often seen in a couple libraries. No sign of Daniel, Josh and North though. Andy was likely the easiest to track down.

Hank mentioned his idea but Connor was way ahead of him, listing the times she’d most likely visit the Starbucks and planning how to approach her without frightening her.

They spent a little more time planning questions for the possible ARC agent before returning to their movie marathon.

~

The next morning Hank had to drag himself out of bed earlier than he’d prefer in order to get him and Connor to the Starbucks before the kid showed up. The fucking shop was all the way across the city.

The trip was quiet for the most part. Connor looked out the window, flipping a coin between his hands in increasingly complex patterns. Hank’s heavy metal was playing at a low volume. He didn’t really feel a need to speak this early in the morning so he had no complaints about this.

They arrived about ten minutes before 7am and Hank ordered a plain coffee and the two settled down to wait and see if Andy showed.

Three minutes past 7am she showed. She was incredibly young to be working for a secret organization. Her makeup was smudged and hasty, her brown hair was pulled into a loose bun and her clothes wrinkled but modern. If Hank didn’t know she’d dropped out he’d think she was just another overworked student at the nearby university.

Hank and Connor stood up and walked towards her, Hank grabbed his badge and flashed it at her.

“Andy Garcia? I’m Lt Hank Anderson. Can we ask you some questions?”

Andy eyed them nervously, “Okay…I guess so. Related to what?”

“Do you happen to know anything about an organization known as the Anomaly Research Centre?” Connor asked, Andy’s eyes widened and flicked between to two of them and the exit.

“I, uh…No?” She lied, incredibly unconvincingly. Her shoulders sagged, seeming to realize her lie was a failure, “Let’s talk outside?”

Hank nodded and they followed her to the outdoor seating. Once she seemed satisfied that no one was within earshot she began talking.

“How the fuck do you know about that?” She hissed.

“I fell through an Anomaly. Hank happened to be there. I just want to get back home.” Connor said.

Andy’s face softened at that, “Oh shit, really? We don’t know enough about these things to open one up to a specific time or anything, man. With creatures that come through if we aren’t able to send them back through the Anomaly they came through we just sorta take care of em to the best of our ability. Once or twice we’ve gotten lucky and a different Anomaly opened to a similar enough time and we reached it in time to send a one back but it doesn’t happen a lot. You’re probably stuck here, man.”

Connor’s face fell and without thinking Hank reached over to rub his shoulder sympathetically. Connor was surprisingly warm for someone made of metal and plastic and whatever else androids were made of.

“Can I ask when you’re from?” Andy asked, voice gentle.

“2052.” Connor answered. 

Hank realized this was the first time he’d actually heard the exact year the guy was from. In a mere twenty five years the world would be so different. Thus was the fast paced march of technology, he supposed.

“Shit. That’s an unusually near time. Anomalies usually work on a scale of thousands to trillions of years. I really hate to tell you this but the chances of you getting back to when you can from is so close to being impossible there’s really no point trying.” Andy said.

Connor shrunk even further in his seat.

“Fuck. What now?” Hank asked.

“I dunno. I suggest forgetting about all this and just…Learn to live your life here and now. Easier said than done, I know, but we can’t help ya so it’s the best I got. Sorry, man.” Andy seemed like she genuinely meant what she was saying and Connor looked so lost.

Hank’s heart broke a little bit for him right there.

“So we just forget about time pulling itself apart and just try to live not only knowing that but also Connor has to live with being stuck twenty five years in the past?” Hank asked, harsher than he had to be.

“Yeah. It sucks but we really can’t help. Really, we’re a just a highly strung and temperamental team of rank amateurs who just happen to be brilliant at what we do. That doesn’t mean we actually know shit about what we do. We help dinosaurs, sometimes we fight dinosaurs, for the most part we just study dinosaurs and desperately ask why this is happening with no real answers. Research may be in our name but really we’re just damage control. I’m sorry.” With that Andy stood up, “I do wish I could help you.” She added, then walked off.

“Fuck.”

Hank thought Connor had summed it up perfectly.


	2. And So It Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There _will_ be more in this series! This is just the end of part 1 ^.^  
>  Beta'd by the lovely [ Sheketti ](http://sheketti.tumblr.com) <3

Connor was quiet for the rest of the day. Hank decided to give him his space. It wasn’t everyday you learned you were trapped in the wrong time and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Hank was heartbroken for him.

After about an hour of uselessly wandering about his house trying to find stuff to do Hank turned to looking through case files on his laptop as a distraction. It wasn’t a very good distraction.

Lunch was a silent affair, which was normal for Hank but it was made unusual by Connor’s quietly depressed presence. Supper passed in much the same way. By the time Hank wandered off to his room to sleep Connor had spoken maybe one word since they’d returned. Hank resolved to talk about this if Connor was still silent tomorrow. Hank hated talking about feelings, that was true, but he also knew that stewing in despair was never good. Obviously, Connor was allowed to be upset, Hank just didn’t want him wallowing.

The next morning Hank found Connor in the living room with post-it notes and string covering one of the walls.

“What the fuck?” Hank was unsure if he was truly awake or if he’d stumbled into an odd dream.

“I’m tracking the appearance of Anomalies and the time period they’ve lead to and attempting to find a pattern. I could do this in my head, I just….didn’t.” Connor explained.

“Needed something to do with your hands?” Hank asked, still fairly certain this was a dream or an alternate reality.

“I suppose.”

“That, uh, doesn’t explain _why_ you’re doing this or _how_ you have all this info. Last I checked we no longer had access to those files you grabbed.” Hank absently scratched his beard, shifting his focus to really looking at the conspiracy wall.

It was impressive considering it’d been put together overnight. Each post-it had a date, a location and a time period listed on it. Post-its that had similar time periods were connected by string and they seemed to be grouped by location. None of this made anything about the Anomalies less confusing to Hank, but it was still impressive.

“I found them again and saved them to my hard drive. I have more memory space than you can imagine so that’s not a concern. I am unsure if I remained undetected as I did this, however.” Connor explained.

“You’re….,unsure if you were undetected?” Hank sighed, “I guess it doesn’t matter either way. They already know we know about their secret organization. Alright, so what have you found out with all this?”

“Not….much. The Anomalies are slowly increasing in frequency, but we already knew that. Ones that open to the future do seem to exclusively open to distant futures, but Andy had said as much. One thing I have learned is that the futures appear to…be in flux. Things that happen in the present seem to change aspects of the future and we can assume that if one were to travel into that past through an Anomaly and change something, the present would be changed in a similar fashion. There’s no proof of that one, for obvious reasons.”

“Anything changes and we just think that’s how it always was.”

“Exactly. So the future I’m from….may not even exist anymore. Or it exists in a parallel timeline that I have no access to. One way or the other, I really am trapped.” Connor concluded his speech with sigh, slumping to lean against his conspiracy wall.

The poor robot was going through the stages of grief at hyperspeed it seemed. Hank felt sorry for him, but at the same time he was struck with the terrifying thought of how impermanent reality was. With these holes in time his very existence could change at any second and he’d be none the wiser. Maybe it’d already happened. Maybe it’d already happened multiple times. One second to the next, reality was suddenly questionable.

He needed a drink.

~

“Alright, since you’re stuck here for who knows how long-“ Connor flinched at the reminder but Hank continued, “we’ve gotta find a way to get all the stuff you need to stay alive or whatever, right?”

Hank was sitting on the couch, he’d had a beer but Connor’s disapproving stare had stopped him from drinking more than that. For now. Connor was still pacing in front of his crazy person wall. They’d been mostly silent for the past however long it’s been, Hank had figured leaving Connor alone would be the best plan, but he also didn’t really want to leave the android alone at that moment, then his phone alerting him that it’s charge was low reminded that this was another thing to worry about.

“How? How are we going to find Thirium? How are we going to put together a charging station?” Connor snapped, glaring at Hank for a second before his face relaxed into something sadder, “I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to do.”

“Good thing I have an idea then. How often do you need to charge? And how often do you need that Thirium stuff?” Hank asked.

“I only need to charge once a month, I’ve got another two and a half weeks of charge at the moment. I only need Thirium if the amount I currently have runs low which is unlikely to happen.”

Hank nodded, “Okay, so the charging station is a priority. If you know how much electricity that needs, I’m pretty sure we can find some way of making something that would work.”

Slowly, Connor nodded. Hank was fairly relieved that they had a couple weeks to figure this out, because he had no idea where to even start. Thank god for youtube tutorials.

“That’s a good idea. I should…I should focus on that. I’m not getting anywhere with this,“ Connor gestured to his wall, “and making a charging station would be far more productive.”

Hank was happy to have given Connor something less pointless to work on, and the two of them, with the help of the internet, set about figuring out what all they would need for the makeshift charger.

This ended up taking the rest of the day, and by the end of the day they had a pretty good list of stuff for Hank to buy so they could get started.

The next day Hank had to go to work, and he figured Connor could start buying his way through the list in the meantime, so he gave the android some money and left for the precinct.

~

“Hey, Anderson! What the fuck is up with you today?” Reed’s shouting pulled Hank out of his thoughts.

“‘M tired is all.” Hank replied.

Reed didn’t seem to believe him, but he went back to trying to annoy Nines. In reality, Hank was unable to focus on the paperwork he was supposed to be working on because he was worried about Connor. Sure the guy looked human and all, but he hadn’t had to try and navigate 2027 on his own before. Various idea about how Connor’s shopping trip could go wrong were racing through his head... and _when the fuck_ had Hank gotten so attached to him? It hadn’t even been a week and Hank was already spending his time worrying about him. He didn’t even know all that much about him, or androids in general really. Connor seemed so human that it was easy to forget that he wasn’t, but was that such a bad thing? Media had been exploring the idea of sapient AI for longer than AI had even been a thing, so the idea that Connor was wasn’t outrageous, and there was tons of evidence that he was a thinking, feeling, sapient being. Hank hadn’t really put a ton of thought into it before that moment, but now that he was thinking about it, he realized that he without a question viewed Connor as another living being.

So that was one question answered, at least. Connor was a living being, Hank was way too attached to him, and the possibility of something bad happening to him terrified Hank. What a weird turn his life had taken.

The next couple hours passed in a similar haze until Hank was called to check out an odd crime scene. It was assumed to be homicide, but that wasn’t a sure thing, so several people from different departments were wandering about when he got there. The scene got his mind off Connor pretty quick.

The body was a young woman, probably in her 30s, and she’d been torn in half. They were on the edge of a highway next to a forest, the top half of her had been found about five feet into the trees and the bottom half was missing. The place where she’d been severed was the cleanest cut Hank had ever seen. The way the blood pooled around her body indicated that she’d bleed out right there but there was absolutely no sign of her other half. It was eerie.

“What the fuck?” Reed and Nines were here as well, and they seemed to be equally confused, if Nines quiet question was anything to go by.

It didn’t take long for it to become obvious that no one could quite figure this one out, the theories being bounced around were becoming more and more absurd. When Hank heard someone mention aliens he decided this was just to much weirdness on top of the weirdness he was already dealing with, so he focused on just directing people on things to check out and left for home as soon as he could.

Maybe tomorrow he could deal with this, but not today.

When he arrived home, he found Connor sitting amongst a pile of half-built electronic looking things, wires and various tools but his focus was clearly on Sumo, who’d decided to lay half in Connor’s lap. Connor could not have looked more thrilled by this.

“Does he weigh anything to you?” Hank asked incredulously.

“Kind of. Hello, Hank.” Connor greeted him, smiling.

Thank god he wasn’t still moping about, or working on his post-it note conspiracy wall.

“I take it the shopping went well?” Hank asked as he walked towards the kitchen in search of some food.

“I managed to find everything I needed, yes.” Hank raised an eyebrow at that and turned around.

“I feel like you’re leaving something out, Con.”

Connor continued his work, not turning around. Instead of an answer, he just shrugged. This irritated Hank, probably more than it should’ve. If something had happened he wanted to know, but instead of pressing he just sighed and went back to what he was doing.

They continued in silence for a bit before Hank gave in, for some reason he didn’t like this silence.

“Got called in to look at a weird crime scene today.”

That apparently caught Connor’s attention, as he shifted a bit under Sumo’s stubborn weight so he could look at Hank better.

“Weird how?” He asked.

“Weird like half a person who clearly bled out where we found her but no sign of her other half. Nothing saying her legs were ever there or were taken away from that spot or anything. No one had seen anything like it.”

Connor frowned, “That is…very weird. Do you think this could have anything to do with the Anomalies?”

Hank groaned, his plan to take Connor’s mind off thing had backfired, “Fuck, I don’t know.”

“Where was she found?”

“You’re not investigating the scene for dinosaurs or whatever, Connor.”

~

Apparently Connor was investigating the scene for dinosaurs. Or whatever.

He’d somehow weaselled the general location of the scene out of Hank, and had left it alone until the following morning when he dragged Hank out to the forest and now they were wandering about looking for…something.

“Connor, this is pointless.” Hank said, and was ignored for the millionth time.

Connor was standing about three feet away, scanning the area or something. They were still a ways away from where the body was, but it was all a part of whatever plan Connor seemed to have. The conspiracy wall had been less sad and annoying. Could they maybe go back to that?

They continued walking for another half hour, with Connor stopping to scan the area every couple minutes, while Hank complained and was ignored, before Connor suddenly stopped and went completely still.

“Connor?” Hank asked and was shushed.

Then Connor was dashing into the trees and Hank hurried to follow him.

“Connor, what the fuck?” Hank shouted but was ignored yet again.

It didn’t take very long for Hank to tire out and have to stop, while Connor continued to run, soon disappearing in the trees.

“CONNOR!” Hank shouted.

Fucking android.

Hank leaned against a tree and caught his breath. Once he could breathe properly, he looked around for any sign of Connor, but he’d vanished. It would probably do no good to try and chase after him, so Hank went back to leaning against the tree and waited for the stupid android to come back. After about ten minutes, Hank saw someone walk through the trees and he had to pinch himself to make sure this wasn’t a weird dream.

“Hello, Hank.” Amelia said.

“What the fuck?”

“It’s been a while. How long has it been, anyway?” Amelia asked.

“Since you disappeared? It’s been four fucking years. What the _fuck_ is going on, Lia?” Hank asked, getting increasingly angrier as he spoke.

How dare she stand there so casually. How could she have left like that? How could she have let him think she was dead, and now she was standing here asking how fucking _long_ it’s been?

“Damn. Only four years?” Amelia had an odd look her face that Hank didn’t care to examine.

“Where the fuck have you been?” He growled.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” She waved a hand dismissively and Hank saw red.

“Try me.”

Amelia looked a little surprised but she recovered quickly, shrugged and started speaking, “I hadn’t meant to disappear-“

“Bullshit. You packed a bag and left, that doesn’t seem accidental.” Hank snapped, she glared at him before continuing.

“If you want to know what happened, you can’t butt in every five seconds. Like I was saying, I hadn’t meant to disappear, but I found something amazing. I did run home and pack a bag, yes, but I honestly didn’t mean to be gone more than a couple days, but what I found…I couldn’t go back, Hank. Not knowing what I know now.” Amelia’s eyes lit up in a way Hank hadn’t seen before.

He didn’t like it.

“What did you find?” He asked, already knowing the answer.

“A hole in time itself! Or, at first only one, but there are more! So many more. I’ve spent years learning as much as I can about them. Officially they’re called Anomalies, various governments study them but no one else has traveled like I have. No one else know how they work, I do. I can fix everything, Hank! We can fix everything!” Amelia lit up more and more with each sentence and it set Hank on edge.

“How long have you been gone from your point of view, Lia.” Hank sighed, shoulders slumping in something like defeat.

“I’m a little surprised by how quickly you believed me. I’ve been gone eight years.”

“I believed you ‘cause I’ve run into these fucking things a couple times. What exactly do you wanna fix, Lia? You wanna save Cole?” Amelia flinched at the mention of their son, “I don’t think they work quite like that. They seem to work on a larger scale than that.”

“I won’t let Cole live with the future of humanity in as much danger as it is now. I thought…I thought I could fix what happened, I’ve tried to fix what happened, but all I did was change the order of some things. But I think I know what to do now. Once I save our future, then I’ll save our son. That’s why I’m here. Seeing you was a nice bonus, though.” Amelia smiled so sweetly at the end of her sentence that Hank almost remembered why he’d once loved her.

“What do you mean? Why does the future need fixing? What happens, Lia?” Hank asked.

Amelia opened her mouth than stilled. Slowly she readied herself to run and put a finger in front of her lips. Hank quietly pushed off the tree he’d been leaning on and slowly followed her line of sight.

Walking slowly past them was a large lizard looking thing with a fan on it’s back that stood almost as tall as Hank. It was walking a relaxed pace, tail sweeping back and forth in time with it’s movements. It’s size and the impressive teeth Hank could see peeking out of it’s mouth were enough to get him to worry. Behind him, he could hear Amelia shift on her feet ever so slightly and he realized she was going to bolt with little care what would happen to him a second before it happened.

Sure enough, she took off running into the trees and the lizard thing turned it’s head sharply to look at Hank. It made a terrifying hissing sound and Hank decided that running was in fact the best course of action.

So he ran, and he tried not to think about what he’d just seen or what Amelia had said or that fact that Amelia was around in the first place. Hank, of course, failed to not think about those things and ran right into-

“What the fuck, Anderson?!” Nines snapped, picking himself off the ground, “You’re just running through the woods like a crazy person now?”

Before Hank could explain anything, not that he had any idea how to do that, the lizard thing came crashing into sight and Nines’ eyes widened. Before he could say anything Hank grabbed his hand and dragged him into a run.

“What are you doing here?” Hank half-shouted his question.

“Reed and I were checking out the _fucking crime scene_ near here! What are _you_ doing here?!” Nines shouted back.

Hank just shrugged and continued running. He didn’t really know how to answer that at that moment. So Connor, Reed and Amelia were all out in the woods somewhere, and there’s at least one giant lizard things also in the forest. Great.

“Oh good, you found the other one.” And there was Connor appearing out of fucking nowhere being chased by a second lizard thing.

“THE FUCK?!” Nines screamed and almost stopped running but Hank grabbed his arm and refused to let him slow down.

“I’ll explain later. _Keep running!_ ” Hank shouted.

“I can feel the Anomaly this way. Lets lead them back to it.” Connor said turning slightly to the right.

Hank didn’t have any better ideas, so he followed, Nines beside him and lizards behind them.

A few moments later they burst through the trees to the now cleaned up crime scene where Reed was standing next to an Anomaly. Connor shook his head slightly.

“Run around it and hope they go through?” Hank suggested.

Apparently, no one else had any other ideas, so that’s what the did. The lizard things had enough momentum built up that it worked. Once they’d gone through, Hank collapsed to his back on the ground next the Anomaly. Connor sat next to him, shaking his head every couple seconds. Nines just leaned forward, hand braced on his legs. Reed was shouting and waving his arms but Hank was too tired to pay attention to him. Instead, he looked at Connor.

“You doing ok there, Con?” He asked.

“The Anomaly is…messing with my head. I’ll be fine.” Connor shook his head again and just sort of started blinking into the distance.

Hank sighed a pulled himself up off the ground and grabbed Connor, guiding him into the trees to a little past where his head shaking had started, the Anomaly still within their sights, and sat them down again. Hank sure as fuck wasn’t standing for longer than was needed for a while. His legs were burning with muscle exhaustion.

“Thank you. I assume we’ve returned the Dimetrodons to their proper time period?” Connor asked, brain apparently unscrambled.

“Yeah. Is that what they were?” Hank said.

Connor nodded, “Yes. Sorry for running off.”

“S’fine.” Hank waved his hand dismissively.

Nines and Reed chose this moment to walk up and interrupt.

“What the _fuck?!_ ” Was all Reed asked.

“Why does he have my face?” Nines demanded, pointing at Connor.

“Fuck if I know.” Hank said, laying back and crossing his arms over his face.

He was ready for this day to be over any time now.

“My name’s Connor. I’m an android from the future.” Connor said.

Reed and Nines made a bunch of strange sounds and swore quite a bit at this.

“So do we just stick around near the Anomaly in case something else comes out until it closes or what?” Hank asked.

“You’ve explained _nothing!_ ” Reed’s shout was ignored.

“Might as well.” Connor shrugged.

And so they waited, with Reed and Nines fuming and asking questions while Hank and Connor answered to the best of their abilities without sharing government secrets, for a little over an hour. Eventually, Hank got tired of sitting in the dirt and went back to standing and leaning on a tree. If this was going to keep happening, he was going to have to get better at running.

Then, a few black vans pulled up in front of the Anomaly. Out of it poured people wearing all black and carrying various types of guns and science-y looking nonsense. They surrounded the Anomaly, all moving with purpose.

A couple of the newcomers spotted them standing around near the Anomaly, and began to walk over. Hank couldn’t really bring himself to give a fuck. Then, he saw a familiar head of brown hair.

“Hey, Andy!” Hank shouted.

The girl turned her head at the sound of her name. Her face did a funny thing when she saw Hank, Connor, and the other two idiots. Hank waved, and she jogged over and reached them at about the same time as the other guys.

“You know them?” One of the gun carrying thugs asked.

Andy sighed and nodded, “Yeah. I can take care of this. Go do your thing.”

The thugs shrugged then turned and left. Hank smirked at Andy who glared at him.

“What the fuck are you two doing here? I told you to leave it alone.” Andy snapped.

“There was crime scene here, maybe we were just checking it out.” Hank said.

“Connor isn’t a cop. Also,” Now she turned to Reed and Nines, “Who the fuck are you two and why do you look like Connor? Oh god, is everything so fucked that there are two Connors?”

“I’m detective Bishop, that’s Detective Reed. We actually were checking out the crime scene to see if anything had been missed. I have no idea why this ‘Connor’ looks like me. His claim to be ‘from the future’ does nothing to explain it.” Nines answered calmly, glaring at Hank and Connor a little one the last sentence.

Reed was less calm.

“Who the fuck are you? And what’s going on? These idiots aren’t telling us the whole story and I want some fucking answers!” Reed was nearing hysterics.

“The line about investigating light phenomena isn’t going to work, is it?” Andy sighed, “Sorry guys, it’s super classified.”

“Hey, who’s your team leader or whatever? I’ve got some info that might be useful.” Hank said.

Andy lifted a hand to her earpiece, “Hey, Markus. Can you come here for a sec?”

A man who Hank assumed was Markus looked over from where he was chatting with a couple other ARC weirdos before nodding and walking over.

“What is it?” He asked when he arrived.

“Hank said he might know something useful?” Andy said this almost like a question, nodding towards Hank to indicate who he was, but Markus smiled at her reassuringly before turning to Hank.

“What is it?”

“So, my wife went missing a few years ago, and now she’s running around doing something with the Anomalies. She claims the future is a mess and wants to fix it? Figured you guys should know about that.” Hank explained.

Markus frowned, “Is…Your wife Amelia Anderson?”

“Yeah.”

The frown deepened, “Thank you.”

Markus turned to leave but Hank wasn’t done quite yet.

“Look, you sure you guys don’t need anyone else on your team? ‘Cause Connor and I sure as fuck ain’t leaving this alone. It’d be better if we could work with you, rather than running into each other like this again.”

“And what do you think you can offer the ARC?” Markus asked, he seemed interested and Hank smiled.

“Well I’m a pretty good detective and I know Lia. Connor is basically a supercomputer-“ Connor snorted a small laugh at that- “and he’s damn good at finding Anomalies. Those two probably aren’t going to leave this alone so it’d probably be less annoying to hire ‘em, too.”

Markus nodded slowly then he smiled.

“Well, we’ll take you back to HQ and we’ll ask Simon, but I think he’ll see the advantage of having you on the team. Welcome to the ARC.”

~

“You can’t be serious.” North Jones was apparently not impressed.

Markus had taken it upon himself to introduce them to those of the core team that were there before they all set off for the ARC. Unlike her older sister, Kelsy had warmed up the Hank and Connor quickly, jury was still out on Nines and she clearly wasn’t a fan of Reed. Andy was thrilled.

“I’m completely serious. They could be very helpful. Besides, Simon makes the final decision, anyway.” Markus said.

North scoffed, “Yeah, like Simon’s gonna say no to this. He doesn’t think we can catch up to Amelia on our own.”

“Can we? We haven’t done a very good job of that so far.” Markus said.

North just glared at him before walking off.

“She’s just mad Amelia was here and we didn’t even see her.” Kelsy explained.

“She really has been causing you guys a world of trouble, huh?” Hank said.

“Pretty much.” Kelsy nodded.

“Can we get a move on?” Reed asked and was ignored.

“Do you know what she means about the future? In 2052 at least things are…Not fine exactly but no worse off than now.” Connor asked, frowning.

“Probably a far more distant future, then.” Andy shrugged, “Who the fuck knows. She’s crazy.” Andy’s eyes widened and turned to Hank, “No offence!”

“None taken. She’s lost it.” Hank agreed.

“The Anomaly closed. Let’s head out.” A call from behind them announced.

It took surprisingly little time for everything to get packed up. Hank found space in Markus’ van, with Connor at his side. Reed and Nines were in some other van. Hank was glad to be rid of them for a little bit. They were amusing, but it’d been a long day.

The drive didn’t take all that long, and soon enough they were pulling into a large and heavily secured underground parking space and making their way into the ARC.

Walking through the doors, Hank’s first thought was ‘wow’ and, judging from Connor’s cute little gasp, that was his thought as well.

The main space was filled with various high-tech screens and whirring, glowing things. People were rushing about, taping things and interacting with hologram charts of stuff. Hank wasn’t nearly smart enough to understand all the stuff going on around him, but Connor looked overjoyed. It was the happiest Hank had seen him, and he felt his heart melt just a little.

There were various hallways leading off to places that were probably just as impressive.

Overlooking the main area was a balcony connected to a glass-walled office. Inside, two men were talking. The blond one turned his head, and lit up seeing the team return. He got up and rushed down the stairs to meet them.

“Markus! North! You’re back!” The man rushed to hug North tightly and kiss Markus.

“It wasn’t even a dangerous mission, Si.” North said, rolling her eyes, but her voice was fond.

“We brought new team members!” Andy announced excitedly.

Simon turned his attention to her, then noticed Hank and Connor.

“There are two others, but…I’m not sure where they ended up. I’ll go find them.” Kesly said and walked off.

“This is Hank Anderson and Connor….I’m sorry, I missed your last name.” Markus said, frowning.

Hank had a second of panic. Connor didn’t have a last name and they hadn’t exactly told anyone he was an android yet. Connor didn’t miss a beat however.

“Connor Quinn.”

“They managed to get two Dimetrodons out of the forest and back through their Anomaly without injuring themselves or the Dimetrodons! And Hank was Amelia Anderson’s husband, so he knows a lot about her.” Markus explained.

“I- Wow. I can see why you brought them here. What about the other two?” Simon asked.

“They sort of helped with the Dime-whatevers but mostly they’d probably just be really annoying trying to figure out what’s going on. Neither of them give up on stuff.” Hank explains.

“And Detective Bishop looking so much like me is a mystery that I do want to solve.” Connor added.

“You understand that if you join, you’re giving up whatever previous career to had, and your life would become all about the ARC, right?” Simon asked.

“I fell through time into the past. I’ve already left my life behind.” Connor answered quickly.

“I need to know what’s going on here and what the fuck Lia was talking about, so yeah. I’m in.” Hank said.

Simon smiled, “Well, then. Welcome to the team.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Do you know how tempted I was to make Connor's fake last name Temple?!_  
>  *Ahem* Anyway, subscribe to the series to see more from this au! 'Cause I have a _lot_ of ideas! And if you have any ideas throw them at me!
> 
> Comments and kudos sustain me <3


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